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Category: About Trees

Articles involving trees, shrubs, bushes, woods and hedges plus related subjects

Poplar Roundabout Felled in Sep-timber

Poplar Roundabout Felled in Sep-timber

In an oval roundabout in Menston a dozen Poplar trees were planted in the 1970s. As you can see only about half survive and these have been mistreated by polling them to restrict height.

What you may want to know about Poplars

  • Poplars (Populus)  are rapidly growing trees with shallow, spreading roots. Do not plant them near buildings.
  • The Black Poplar (nigra) has a shortish life of around 30 years so I shouldn’t be surprised by the state of these trees.
  • White Poplars (alba) are suckering trees with white woolly undersides to the leaf.
  • Balsam poplars can grow 6 feet per year and have a balsamic scent.
  • Female trees have long catkins but they are too high up these trees to see.

Poplar trees are usually felled in Sep-timber!

Cloak a wall in Jasmine

Cloak a wall in Jasmine

This Winter Jasmine or Jasminum Nudiflorum is just flowering on a neighbours, southwest facing, brick wall. Flowering a bit earlier this year it should flower through to March. The result shown is as a result of regular pruning and the stems have been tied in.

  • Left to it own devices the winter jasmine will form a 2 foot high mound as it won’t twine and is unable to climb unaided.
  • Cuttings from the arching stems can be taken in early summer.
  • Although deciduous the young stems are green and the flowers are born on bare stems giving the overall impression of an evergreen.
  • Unlike indoor Jasmine this plant has little or no fragrance
  • The AGM has been awarded to Jasminum Nudiflorum and it also has an apt Chinese name ‘Welcoming Spring Flower’

Uses for Crab Apples

Uses for Crab Apples

Crab apples can be used as food, for ornamental effect, to help pollination, or for the wood. The wild crab apple found individually in woods has green fruit turning golden in Autumn. Cultivated crab apples vary in habit and grow upto 10 feet. Fruiting this year looks like a bumper harvest after the wet weather earlier in the year.

Crab Apples make attractive ornamental trees with their pink or white blossom, followed by colourful autumn fruits that make delicious preserves. Varieties John Downie, Golden Hornet, Laura and Red Sentinel are all self fertile. Crab apples planted near fruiting apple trees make excellent pollinators and will help pollinating bees to increase your crops.

Crab apples are used to make jelly, pickles or can be roasted and served with meat or added to winter ale or cider. Any unpicked fruits will soften after a few frosts and will create a sumptuous food source for wild birds from late January until March. For a jelly recipe with a chillie kick try Cottage Smallholder

The timber of the crab apple is uniform in texture and if dried slowly, is excellent for woodworking. At one time it was used for making set-squares and other drawing instruments. Failing that apple wood burns in your chimenea of fire grate with a nice aroma.

Order now for winter delivery Crab Apples at Thompson & Morgan

Strange and Attractive Autumn Shrubs

Strange and Attractive Autumn Shrubs

It is worth inspecting closely the plants that have waited all year to bloom or display special features.

This purple and white flower combination was covering an 8 foot high and wide bushy shrub at Thorp Perrow. It was catalogued as ‘Clerodendron trichotomum’. I have managed to kill my own Clerodendron so I was happy to see a large sweetly scented plant in such robust health. The white flowers and maroon calyces will be followed by blue berries for which the plant gets its Autumn plaudits. I would recommend this variety rather than Clerodendron bungei which is less gainly and has feotid leaves.

I am trying to work out what this shapely shrub with the long blue pods is called. Any ideas?

Cornus Kausa ‘Gold Star’ is a variety to look out for with the variegated foliage and the red seed pods in Autumn.

Other Resources

Royal Horticultural Society RHS ‘Gardening for All’
National Council for Conservation of Plants and Gardens ‘Conservation through Cultivation.’
Garden Organic National Charity for Organic Gardening.
BBC Gardening

Roses on April 1st

Roses on April 1st

You may wonder how roses flower on 1st April when your favourite flower is just at its summer best

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This is not a joke or April fools day prank but the pictures of all these roses were taken in Madieria on that date.

In sheltered spots old fashioned roses will bloom earlier than HT or Floribunda roses. I am told that by the end of April the Cornish gardens will have roses in bloom.

Meanwhile we will have to be content with these photographs, our memories and the work still to be done on roses in our gardens.

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I was impressed by the volume of rose buds on this rose. It had a slightly rambling appearance and I regret it was not labeled.

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Training climbing roses can produce some great shapes and flowers. The balustrade for these steps will be strewn with blossom in a month or so’s time.

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Foliage of Spring Greens and Bi-colours

Foliage of Spring Greens and Bi-colours

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Greens are vibrant in your garden during spring and with careful plant selection good foliage can be grown throughout the seasons.

Many shrubs flower before or as the buds are breaking. The greeny yellows and the limes are a joy to behold

Some variegated shrubs give double the value with the greens and yellows blending so well. Who need flowers?

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Leaf shape, leaf colour and overall plant form are worth considering when opting for a new plant in your garden.

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Inside our house we have a large number of plants that have been chosen for their leafy green appearance. This is a calming colour and the moisture around the plant improves the humidity levels.

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More exotic colours are not always difficult to cultivate but access to sunlight generally helps.

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Willow as a Crop

Willow as a Crop

copiced land

Willow can be grown as a crop and used for many purposes. It is not a garden crop as it needs a lot of water and can be a bit of a thug as a tree.

This Willow is growing on the flood plain at Rodley nature reserve. At the back you can see 8 feet high trees growing away. You can also see how some trees have been coppiced or cut to the ground and the uprights taken away.
The stool or remaining root will regrow a further crop of willow for next year.

Fence from coppiced willow

Willow can be woven to form hurdles or fences. Willow is supple and will bend when green and can be watered to increase suppleness.

Laid hedge

Laid hedges are made by partially cutting through uprights and laying the young growth at a slant. Willow is used to offer an upright support against which the laying can be joined.

In addition to traditional uses Willow Weaving has become an interesting pastime. Garden supports, arches and frames can be built from willow and sculptures can be created by the artistically or practically minded. Grow sweet peas up a willow frame.
A step guide DVD is available from amazon

Willow can be grown in rows of bushes and cropped for making basket weaving willow. Grow your own trug!

Book Cover

Japanese Mume an Apricot or Plum

Japanese Mume an Apricot or Plum

The Japanese have a long and detailed affair with fruit tree blossom. Apricots, Prunus armenaica and Plums, Prunus salicina are well known to western gardeners but what of Mumes.

What are Prunus Mume or Mumes

  • The wild Mume has single white or pink flowers in February-March which cluster densely on dark brown branches.
  • The flowers are intensely fragrant that has encouraged the breeding of many 100’s of cultivars throughout Asia.
  • The blossom opens before the Cherry blossom season and is the harbinger of spring.
  • A ‘Mume’ is a green to yellow, downy fruit with a groove running the length of the fruit from the stalk.
  • Prunus mume, commonly known as ‘ume’ is also confusingly called Japanese apricot, or Chinese plum.

Uses of a Mume

  • The tree is cultivated for both  fruit and flowers.
  • Old decorative trees are venerated and used near temples.
  • Mume are grown as Bonsai to flower at the new year. Wild varieties perform best.
  • The flowers are the subject of many traditional painting in Japan and Vietnam.
  • The fruit is grown as a crop although it is very sour.
  • In Japan the fruit is dried in the sun and preserved in salt to make a pickle.
  • They can be put with sugar into strong alcohol to make a drink like cherry brandy.

 

Tip

Prune stone fruit like plums and apricots in summer. In winter the wounds do not heal and trees are susceptible to silver leaf and infections.

Hippophae rhamnoides with Orange Berries

Hippophae rhamnoides with Orange Berries

Sea Buckthorn

Hippophae Rhamnoides also called Sea Buckthorn, is related to Elaeganeous and is shown here and below with it’s heavy crop of attractive Apricot coloured berries. The shrub can grow to over 15 feet but makes a nice ornamental feature. It flowers in spring followed by narrow silvery leaves through summer. Each plant is either male or female and you need both for pollination and only the female produces these great berries.

There are only 3 species of Hippophae. Hippophae elaegnaceae is excellent for seaside locations and is wind resistant. The orange berries are often retained on the plant through winter as they are a bit acid for the birds. They can and are cooked for human consumption.

Hippophae salicifolia has sage green leaves and can grow into a small tree with pendulous branches.

Tips Propagated from seed they can also be grown from root cuttings, suckers or layered.
Look for Hippophae sold under these alternative names as well as Sea Buckthorn, Seaberry, Siberian pineapple, or Alpine Sandthorn.
The berries are used in herbal medicine for a variety of ailments.

Hipppofea
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Pittosporum for Leaves & Flowers

Pittosporum for Leaves & Flowers

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Pittosporum is a large genus of evergreen shrubs or small trees. The foliage is in demand for floristry and the shrubs make an excellent evergreen plant if the conditions are mild.
Most varieties have small scented white flowers and produce better flowers in warm conditions.

Pittosporum are also called Japenese Cheesewood

Cultivation of Pittosporum

  • Pittosporum Dallii and Pittosporum patula and Pittosporum tenufolium are more hardy species in the UK.
  • Pittosporum will grow well in seaside locations if the climate is mild.
  • Most plants originate from Australasia and like hot dry conditions.
  • Some varieties of Pittosporum produce small red berries.
  • Pittosporums can also be grown indoors as bonsai.
  • Larger plants can be used as a climbing-frame for lightweight late-flowering clematis.
  • Pittosporum tenufolium can have leaves with wavy margins and most have interesting colour, from bronzed plum to the bright butter-yellow of `Golden King’.
  • Tenuifolium ‘Purpureum’, has purple-bronze foliage and rapidly makes a decent-sized small tree

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Selected Varieties
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